A variety of subsea control systems are employed for use in controlling subsea wells during, for example, emergency shutdowns. In many applications, the subsea systems may comprise a number of electrical lines that may be used to control a number of valves. During a specific valve operation, an operations engineer may issue a command via a human machine interface from a topside master controller station. The umbilical may be operationally connected to surface sources of power (e.g., electrical and hydraulic) in addition to electronics, communications, and power that may be provided via the topside master control station. For example, control signals may be sent down the umbilical to operate a number of solenoid valves and a subsea control module to actuate a number of directional control valves.
The umbilical spans the distance necessary to reach the various components of the subsea control systems, which may be located thousands of meters below the sea surface. Thus, the subsea electrical lines and components are difficult to reach while deployed subsea. Accordingly, there remains a need to easily diagnose the integrity of the subsea portions of the umbilical and other electrical lines used to control the various subsea components from the topside master controlled station to ensure the proper operation of, for example, the safety control features of the subsea control system.